Moral rot is everywhere. This is Decadence.
No earthly power could have destroyed the United States. It could only have been destroyed by its own internal moral rot and decay. The America people are responsible--no one else. Their children will curse them.
Many thinkers said that the democracy is unstable and not viable in the long term. They pointed at earlier examples of democracies, from ancient Greece to France (1790) to Russia (1917) and now to the USA. For example:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy. (exact source unknown; likely Alexis de Tocqueville.)
Were they right?